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Kony
Kony

Child soldiering is a problem throughout much of the world.

Kony runs the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in Africa and is responsible for massacres, mass rapes, and creating a legion of child soldiers. He has evaded capture for nearly three decades.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/video/2012/mar/14/congo-thomas-lubanga-conviction-video
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Child Soldiers of Sierra Leone

  • SOS Children's Villages engages in rehabilitation programs and family reunification for former child soldiers. SOS offers various forms of support to strengthen and stabilize families as much as possible so that children can grow up in their own families and not be succeptible for recruitment as child soldiers.

  • The IRC in Sierra Leon is there to help rebuild with education, health care, and job training. They are there to help woman an children as well as protecting them.

Child Soldiers are forced to do things against there will such as killing parents or siblings, assaulting neighbors, torching villages that they once lived in. Some become sex slaves, while many are injected with drugs to retain there thoughts or actions against viloence.
Children that suffer serious mental health issues are those who commited intense violent actions, or they were victims.


“War violates every right of a child – the right to life, the right to be with family and nurtured and respected”, (Grace Machel, UN, 1996).


  • There are atleast 36 countries with child soldiers,
  • Some are Afghanistan, Burma, Central Africa republic, Chad, Columbia. Dr Cango, India, Iraq, Phillipines, Somalia, South Sudan, Yemen and Thailand.
  • Each year the number of child soldiers progresses as more children are recruited.

Sierra Leone child soldier survivors

  • research has shown that child soldiers have high levels of violence and hostility
  • after being in such horrible experiences children are psychologically and socially traumatized
  • without early treatment at a young age consequences are predicted during adulthood

What laws are protecting children of the world?


In a victory for children in war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, the DRC government recently signed a plan of action with the UN to eliminate the recruitment and use of child soldiers in their military forces, including a first-of-its-kind plan for protecting children from sexual violence.
This historic step comes after several years in which the Government of the DRC had part of its US military aid withheld under the landmark Child Soldier Prevention Act (CSPA).

Are these laws being enforced?


As recently as 3 weeks ago, a report came in from Myanmar that they still use child soldiers, despite democratic reform and an U.N. agreement to cease.
The report-
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20130123/us-myanmar-child-soldiers/?utm_hp_ref=politics&ir=politics

Child soldier arrests


The International Criminal Court convicted a Congolese warlord on Wednesday of using child soldiers, a verdict hailed as a legal landmark in the fight against impunity for the world's most serious crimes.

Human rights advocates said the guilty verdicts against Thomas Lubanga — the first judgment in the court's 10-year history — should stand as a clear deterrent to armies around the world not to conscript children.

Sources-


http://blog.amnestyusa.org/africa/ending-the-use-of-child-soldiers-one-step-forward/

http://www.pangaea.org/street_children/africa/armies.htm

http://www.sos-usa.org/newsroom/child-soldiers/Pages/default.aspx?gclid=CLXslLyDsbUCFUWo4AodvBkACw

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/magazine/child-soldiers-betancourt/

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/world/story/2012-03-14/congo-warlord-convicted-child-soldiers/53525658/1

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100715090640.htm